First Posted: 2/15/2015
U.S. Sen. Robert Taft was the guest speaker as the Lima Rotary Club held the District Conference in 1974. More than 800 Rotarians attended.
Highlights included a gala cocktail party hosted by the Lima Ford Engine Plant. Dinner was held at the downtown Milano Club. After dinner the group went to Memorial Hall for a Lima Symphony Orchestra Concert. That was followed by dancing with two bands playing.
Earlier, Harold Peary, spoke and entertained the group at lunch. Peary was an actor, comedian and singer in radio, film, television and animation remembered best as Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve, a supporting character on radio’s Fibber McGee & Molly that moved to its own radio hit, The Great Gildersleeve, the first known spinoff hit in American broadcasting history.
The Lima Rotary Club has hosted five district conferences, bringing hundreds of people into our community for each event.
How did Rotary
get its name?
The story behind the naming of the Rotary club is a simple one.
When Paul Harris formed the club in Chicago on Feb. 23, 1905, it was decided the club would hold their meetings on a rotation basis at each others place of business. Hence, the name “Rotary Club.”
Highest ranking
Lima Rotarian
During the World War II years, Harry Poulsten became the Lima Rotary Club member to hold the highest office on a national and international level, an honor that holds to this day.
He was the District Governor in 1940-41 and a Director of Rotary International in 1942-43.
High-tech
in 1916
One of the greatest nights in Lima Rotary Club history came in 1916 when the Transcontinental Telephone Banquet was held at the Elks Club.
Through the courtesy of Rotarian George Metheany of the Lima Telephone and Telegraph Company, arrangements were made for the demonstration of equipment that allowed Rotarians in Lima to talk with Rotarians in San Francisco right from their tables as if they were talking with someone in the same room.
It was one of the big events that put the Lima club on the Rotary map.
Tough times
escalate in 1945
Rotary felt the pains of the Depression and the war years that followed, especially in 1945.
Notes from that time say the club was to have hosted the district conference, but canceled it because the U.S. government frowned on meetings with more than 50 people. It probably wasn’t a bad thing the conference was canceled. Horace Riley Riggs, who was club president at that time, noted the club was nearly broke.
Lima Rotary
out for blood
The Lima Rotary Club began sponsoring a community Blood Clinic in 1996 at Senior Citizen Services in partnership with Medi-Lab. In 2010, Lima Memorial Health System took over the testing from Medi-Lab. The Blood Clinic is now held each spring and fall and Sertoma Club partners with us to provide complimentary hearing tests. Hundreds of people are tested at each Blood Clinic and the project raises tens of thousands of dollars for the Lima Rotary Foundation.
